Conference Call

I have a phobia about participating on a conference call and unfortunately these dreaded conference calls are scheduled on a regular basis at my place of employment.

First of all, I can't stand hearing several voices and being unsure of who's speaking and where they're speaking from. Even worse, is when one person tries to talk over another. It's completely confusing and annoying. When I'm talking to a single person on a regular phone call, I don't have this problem.

But when I'm tapped in to participate in a conference call, trying to match names up with voices drives me crazy. Sometimes the organizer of the call will think ahead and send out a list of all participants. Even better, sometimes one poor soul will be given the task of keeping notes which are then distributed to all participants. If I had my say, I'd just receive those notes and skip the conference call altogether.

At work, every Tuesday morning they have something called a 'round table'. Except, we are not meeting at a real round table. We are crowded around a conference phone in my boss's office, straining to hear comments made by other members of our team spread across the country, no doubt crowded around their boss's desk straining to hear what we have to say.

Just recently, my work invested in a video conferencing system. At first I thought this was a great idea that would put an end to my frustration with our regular conference calls. At least with a video conferencing system, we could see who was saying what.

Conference Call News VeriFone Schedules Conference Call to Discuss Expected Fourth Qua VeriFone Holdings, Inc. announced today that it will host a conference call to comment on expected fourth quarter and fiscal 2008 results released earlier today. Capital City Energy Group to Hold Conference Call on Monday Novem COLUMBUS, Ohio----Capital City Energy Group Inc. announced today that it will hold a conference call to update the investment community on its financial and operating results and growth strategy on Monday, November 24th at 11 a.m. eastern time. Analogic Corporation Announces First Quarter Investor Conference PEABODY, Mass.----Analogic Corporation announced today that it will conduct an investor conference call on Tuesday, December 9, 2008, at 11:00 a.m. to discuss results for the first quarter ended October 31, 2008. Radiant Communications Schedules 2008 Third Quarter Earnings Resu VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA-- - Radiant Communications Corp. , Canada's leading supplier of Broadband Solutions for Business, is pleased to announce a conference call to present its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2008 on Friday November 21, 2008, at 9:00 a.m. SoftBrands to Webcast Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2008 Conference Call SoftBrands, Inc. , a global supplier of enterprise application software, will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss fourth quarter results on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, at 5:00 pm Eastern Time . Eaton Vance Corp. Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call Notific Eaton Vance Corp. will host a conference call at 11:00 AM EST on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 to discuss financial results for the quarter ended October 31, 2008. The call will follow a news release announcing fourth quarter earnings that will be issued at approximately 9:00 AM on November 25, 2008.

However, after our first video conference, I was even more ill-at-ease. We all spent that hour trying not to look at the screen so as to avoid our own images, while peering out of the corner of our eyes, trying to get a gander at whomever was speaking at that instant. We all found the video conference call even more unnerving that a regular conference call.

In my mind, conference calls tend to mostly be a big waste of time. Generally, one or two people blather on while the rest of the team zones out, only offering token comments when absolutely necessary. When conference calls are deemed absolutely necessary, in my opinion they should be kept short and sweet and to the point. Much valuable time is wasted, it's a bad way to start your day if you have misgivings or personal hang-ups about conference calls, and most of the information shared is usually not pertinent to more than one or two individuals participating in the call.